The UPDF Commander Land Forces, Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba has Wednesday returned from Rwanda after a successful three day visit.

Muhoozi travelled to Rwanda on Monday morning to Kigali to resolve all outstanding issues between Rwanda and Uganda.

While in Rwanda, he held talks with President Paul Kagame, paid respects to genocide victims at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, and toured the Kigali Arena.

In a tweet, Muhoozi says together with Kagame, the discussed difficulties still associated with border opening.

“After a very fruitful 3 day visit to Rwanda I’d like to thank His Excellency Paul Kagame and the government and people of Rwanda for the very warm way we were received and treated. We discussed a wide range of issues,” Muhoozi wrote on Wednesday afternoon.

“One of the issues we discussed concerned the few difficulties still connected with the border opening (the high cost of PCR tests for Covid-19 etc). President Paul Kagame assured me all that will be sorted out,” he added.

He also thanked President Museveni “for giving me opportunity to serve my nation by helping to rebuild the very important strategic relationship between Uganda and Rwanda.”

This comes a month and half after Muhoozi met President Paul Kagame in Kigali on a mission to restore bilateral relations.

Lt Gen Muhoozi’s visit to Kigali was followed by Rwanda’s announcement that the Uganda-Rwanda border, closed since 2019, would be opened on January 31.

Despite the announcement, traders and passengers from both countries were at first not allowed to freely cross the border, but cargo trucks were permitted.

Rwanda would later announce full opening of it borders on March 7 which was effected and people are freely crossing.

Muhoozi would then announce that he was to return to Kigali to conclude on the remaining issues.

“After a long discussion with my uncle, President Kagame, this morning we have agreed that I will return to Kigali in the coming days to sort out all outstanding issues between Uganda and Rwanda,” Lt. Gen. Muhoozi tweeted at the start of this month.

On March 6, Gen Muhoozi in a tweet said that he deserved a prize for championing negotiations that led to the full reopening of the borders between the two countries.

“The border is fully opening tomorrow. Me and my uncle (President Kagame) achieved in 7 hours what all the diplomats on earth failed to achieve. I think we need a prize,” wrote Muhoozi a day to the full reopening.

The relations between the countries became frost in February 2019 when Rwanda closed Katuna/Gatuna border.

At the time, Kigali said the closure was due to the renovations at the border. Cargo was then diverted to Mirama Hills and Kyanika border posts in Ntungamo and Kisoro districts, but those too were later closed.

Rwanda shortly after, issued a travel advisory to its nationals warning them against travelling to Uganda, which it accused of, among other things, abducting its citizens and detaining them in ungazetted areas, allegations government of Uganda disputed.

Since the closure of border, there were at least four tripartite meetings involving Angolan President Joao Lourenço, and DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi, and a series of lower level meetings between government officials of the two nations, but they did not yield much.

Kungu Al-Mahadi Adam is an experienced Ugandan multimedia Journalist with a background of fact checking and thorough research. He is very passionate about current African affairs particularly Horn of Africa. He...

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